A home for the arts in Everett

Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 13, 2004

EVERETT – Everett painter Jules Anslow calls artists “an electric kind of people.”

That might explain why some local leaders are trying to plug them in.

The creation of an art district in Everett started out as a mere thought on how to support artists such as Anslow while helping revitalize the city.

The idea is now an active coalition, said Karen Shaw, Everett director of economic development and human services.

Everett has teamed with the Arts Council of Snohomish County, the Snohomish County Economic Development Council and other groups to explore The Living Arts Center.

Michael V. Martina / The Herald Jules Anslow, in her Everett art studio and home, is interested in the proposed art district in downtown Everett.

The center would be located in a district not yet drawn on any map, Shaw said, a place that would aim to provide affordable housing, studio and gallery spaces for all types of regional artists and art organizations.

An incubator for all things creative, it also could house a small theater, classrooms, art galleries, movie theaters, space for book and poetry readings, and more, she said. The area would likely be in downtown Everett or one of the city’s industrial areas, which also could mean sprucing up the city’s historical but underused or abandoned buildings.

“It’s still just an idea right now, but we’re trying to put meat on those bones,” Shaw said.

The idea was given a boost when the city and county chipped in $5,000 to hire the Minnesota firm Artspace to find a way to create an Everett art district that serves the region.

Artspace, the nation’s leading nonprofit real-estate developer for the arts, will be in Everett for three days this week to lend a hand, and possibly its name, to the project. The company will meet with the community 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Everett Events Center, 2000 Hewitt Ave.

Artspace – which started developing artists’ space in the mid-1980s – has completed 27 such artist living-and-working space projects across the country and has 25 more in the works, Vice President Chris Velasco said.

One of the biggest issues with such an art district is sustainability, Velasco said. When artists flock to a neighborhood, it often becomes hip. But with that status comes rising rents and land values, often driving “starving artists” away.

“When we first began as a company, we were our own worst enemy,” Velasco said. “All of a sudden the artists couldn’t afford to be in an area of town that was a ghost town before they got there.”

Because of its success in maintaining affordable space for artists even after a neighborhood is in vogue, the company receives oodles of invitations from cities in need of an artsy boost – way more invitations than it can accommodate.

Velasco said that when he returns to Minnesota, Artspace’s board will decide whether to take on Everett as a project. But even if Artspace doesn’t choose Everett, the company can help point project organizers in the right direction, he said.

The mere fact the idea is on the table is big, he said.

“Almost by definition we’re not invited to communities where there isn’t something in the wind,” he said. “There’s vision afoot. That’s not happening everywhere by any means.”

Judy Tuohy, executive director of the Arts Council of Snohomish County, said the council has more than 1,800 artists on its mailing list, some of whom will be at Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think the community will be surprised at how many artists there are and the interest that they have in this project,” Tuohy said.

Diana Dollar, one of the project’s co-founders and a vice president at Snohomish County Economic Development Council, said there is interest from all over the county – including colleges and smaller arts organizations.

Anslow, who lives, paints and teaches her daughter in her home, is thrilled at the idea of having affordable space to work and show her art.

“Everett is really coming into its own now. I think this is something that every upcoming metropolitan area and city needs – a heart,” she said. “It gives a city its soul.”

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or j warnick@heraldnet.com.